Dozens of artisan and smaller food and drink producers across Northern Ireland await the Great Taste Awards 2023 verdicts

The great tastes of Northern Ireland will be revealed at the beginning of next month.

Dozens of artisan and smaller food and drink producers across Northern Ireland are awaiting verdicts on their products from judges in the Great Taste Awards 2023 from the UK Guild of Fine Foods.

Great Taste is an annual milestone that the food industry here looks forward to celebrating. It’s a globally recognised celebration of great food and drink, a yearly competition in which our companies have fared exceptionally well over the past decade. It gives the entire industry a real buzz to see local companies, large and small and across all sectors, picking up well-deserved gold stars at an international level.

This year’s announcement of the winners is due on August 1. The overall Supreme Champion and regional winners will not be revealed until a gala dinner and awards ceremony at Southwark Cathedral in September.

We’ve punched well above our weight in recent years and have won the Supreme Champion award three times – twice by Peter Hannan’s Hannan Meats and once by McCartney’s Butchers, both based in Moira.

Hannan’s is the most successful meat company from the UK and Ireland in the awards. And Thompson’s Family Teas in Belfast has won more awards than any other tea company in the UK and Ireland.

Last year, furthermore, local companies won a total of 159 awards. Among the most successful producers were Corndale Farm Chorizo from Limavady and Lisburn’s Suki Tea. Jam at the Doorstep farmshop in Armoy won awards for its Christmas and sticky toffee puddings.

These awards attracted very positive publicity that signposted Northern Ireland as a great location for outstanding food and drink. George McCartney won his award for reviving interest in superb silverside beef, while Peter Hannan introduced his unique guanciale and then splendid Glenarm Shorthorn beef that led to significant business in Britain from the likes of Fortnum and Mason in London’s Piccadily Square, renowned as a long-term supplier to the Royal family.

The high-end store subsequently added a host of other local food and drink from the likes of Abernethy Butter, Dromara; Shortcross Gin, Crossgar; and Dunville’s Irish whiskey from Kircubbin and, prior to the pandemic, hosted highly successful Northern Irish showcases in-store attended by the now King Charles.

In addition to the Supreme Champion title, companies stand to win a regional Golden Fork for an outstanding product in their region, as well as three, two and one stars for their products. Local companies can now be expected to collect dozens of gold stars for excellent products, awards which help them on the road to greater success in sales.

Winning companies really prize their awards and love to be able to feature the Great Taste winner logo on all their packaging. The logo is a mark of quality and taste and a proven way to attract buyers’ attention.

What Great Taste offers, above all, is a unique benchmarking and product evaluation service, that encourages confidence and commercial success for quality food and drink businesses. This in turn generates a greater awareness for products locally, regionally, nationally and internationally.

The Golden Fork for the best local product last year was won by Wild Sika Venison Loin from Baronscourt Estate in Co Tyrone. Other winners in the past have included Hannan Meats; Whitewater Brewery in Castlewellan for its Kreme de la Kremlin stout; and Morellis for caramelised hazelnut ice cream.

Baronscourt has seen its business develop steadily since winning the Northern Ireland Golden Fork last year.

Recognised as a stamp of excellence and actively sought out by food lovers and retailers alike, Great Taste values taste above all else. All products in the line-up for judging are blind tasted: every product is removed from its packaging so it cannot be identified, before entering a robust, layered judging process. This year, the judging took place over 90 days across two judging locations (Dorset and London).

Drawing 14,205 food and drink entries from 110 countries across the world, Great Taste, the world’s largest food and drink accreditation scheme based entirely on taste and has grown rapidly since its launch in 1994.